Woman Sentenced to Nothing but Bread and Water

HOUSTON – A judge has ordered three days of bread and water for a woman convicted of animal cruelty in neglecting two horses.

Melissa Dawn Sweeney (search), 28, was sentenced Monday to 30 days in jail after her Friday conviction on two counts of animal cruelty (search).

Harris County Criminal Court-at-Law Judge Mike Peters sentenced her for neglecting two horses kept outside her Baytown mobile home.

"She's going to get more than her horses got," Peters said Monday.

The judge also ordered that enlarged photographs of her famished horses be kept posted on her jail cell wall.

Prosecutors said Sweeney left the two horses without food or shelter for more than four months. They said Sweeney was just too lazy to care for the animals, one of whom was found with severe abscesses on his hoofs.

Sweeney, however, testified that she fed the horses about 28 pounds of food a day. She blamed their condition on aging.

The Houston Chronicle reported the horses were in their mid-20s, and healthy horses can live into their early 30s.